Defining success metrics for small teams

This is one of those topics that looks small until it costs you something. Most advice about defining success metrics assumes a team that does not exist at your size. Here is the version that does not.

Clear scope protects the client at least as much as it protects the agency. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

What to keep

Agree the numbers before the work starts. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

What to drop

Process that exists to coordinate ten people is overhead when there are two of you. There is a version of this that is over-engineered, and it is worth avoiding.

What good looks like

Pick metrics you can actually influence. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

What this looks like day to day

Strategy work is mostly deciding what not to do, and writing it down so it stays decided. Three things worth confirming about defining success metrics before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Agree the numbers before the work starts — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If any of that sounds like a description of your current setup, it is fixable.